Women’s basketball team preps for season

Following one of the most successful campaigns in program history, the women’s basketball team kicked off the 2012-13 season with its first official practice Tuesday.

The team welcomed 10 new players and looked ahead toward a challenging nonconference and Horizon League slate.

In her first year at the helm, head coach Regina Miller led the Flames to the second-highest win record in program history (18-13).

UIC made an appearance in the semifinal round of the Horizon League Tournament for the first time in five years after a quarterfinal win over Butler.

Although the Flames lost more than 70 percent of their offense from last season, Miller is confident that her squad will develop into a very competitive team.

“Overall, I was pleased with practice,” Miller said. “With eight freshmen, there’s a learning curve so we ran a very fundamental practice. One thing I challenge them with is playing through drills at game speed and some aren’t familiar with that yet. We have many more practices to go and our goal is to have some level of improvement each day and I think we’ll be fine.”

Ten newcomers, including eight freshmen, spotlight UIC’s roster this season, comprising the youngest team in the Horizon League. Miller also welcomes two new staff members, assistant coach Laura Gonsalves and director of basketball operations Lindsay Scarlatelli.

Taylor Foulks and Heidi Dahnke are the lone seniors on this year’s squad. Foulks enters her final campaign as one of the best three-point shooters in program history, ranking fifth on the all-time list with 176. She needs 63 three-pointers this season to overtake UIC Hall of Famer Joanne McCarthy (238) as the Flames’ most prolific outside shooter. Dahnke started more than half of the team’s games last season.

UIC plays its first exhibition game at 3 p.m. Oct. 28 against St. Joseph’s College at the Flames Athletic Center. The regular season begins with a 7 p.m. Nov. 9 match against Truman State at the UIC Pavilion.